Because tomorrow was the registration day for the new semester and dusk was approaching, almost every student had already returned to the dorms. The fourth-floor corridor of Southwest Dormitory Building Three was bustling, with girls constantly coming and going and their cheerful chatter filling the air. At the stairwell, Jiang Chenxin relaxed a little.
Right. There were more than a hundred students living on this floor alone. Even a ghost wouldn’t dare cause trouble here, would it? Besides, she only had to go back, grab a few things, and leave immediately.
But the moment she saw the door to Room 414, that thought vanished. She clapped a hand over her mouth in horror and backed away several steps, until her back hit the wall.
Countless strands of black hair were crawling out through every crack in the doorway, covering the entire door so thoroughly that only the plaque marked 414 remained visible. The hair seemed to have eyes. It moved like living things, crawling across the floor toward Jiang Chenxin. Before long, it had blocked off every inch of ground around her and was surging toward her as viciously as venomous snakes.
Jiang Chenxin couldn’t stop herself from screaming. In her panic, her right hand found a doorknob. Without a moment’s hesitation, she shoved the door open and darted inside.
The four girls in the room all turned toward the intruder.
“Jiang Chenxin? What brings you over? Was that you screaming just now?”
“Uh, maybe you heard wrong… Well, we haven’t seen each other all winter break, so I guess I missed you guys!”
Jiang Chenxin privately marveled at how quickly she’d improvised.
The girls didn’t suspect a thing. They were classmates, after all, and dropping by one another’s rooms was perfectly normal. After chatting with them for a few minutes, Jiang cautiously cracked open the door. The door to Room 414 was still covered in black hair, but the strands didn’t seem to have crossed the threshold. She immediately ran from the dormitory building.
There was no way she would ever dare go back inside. She could only call her friend Zhou Ziying, but Zhou spoke before she had a chance.
“Xiaoxin, why aren’t you back yet? We were just planning to go out for dinner!”
“Um, Yingying, could you bring my two suitcases downstairs for me…?”
“Huh? You’re really moving out? I thought you were just saying that before.”
“Please, Yingying. Please? I’m begging you…”
Zhou Ziying was softhearted and easily persuaded. On top of that, she and Jiang Chenxin had always been close, so she finally agreed.
About two minutes later, Zhou Ziying and Xu Fei appeared at the building entrance, each carrying one of the large suitcases. This time, Xu Fei was the one to ask curiously.
“Xiaoxin, what exactly happened? You lived in the dorm just fine all last semester. Why are you suddenly moving off campus?”
Jiang Chenxin didn’t answer. She only stared at them in terror. Several loops of black hair were wound around both Xu Fei’s and Zhou Ziying’s necks, and the strands led all the way back to the stairwell at the far edge of her vision.
“You two… you should move out too… There really is a ghost in the dorm…”
Jiang Chenxin’s teeth chattered as she forced out the words.
As expected, Xu Fei laughed.
“Xiaoxin, even if you’re moving out, don’t scare us like that! Whether you live in the dorm is your personal choice. We don’t have the right to say anything. Besides, we’ll still be in the same class and can see each other all the time!”
Zhou Ziying didn’t laugh this time. She had the uneasy feeling that her beautiful friend wasn’t joking or trying to scare them at all. But she looked around and saw nothing, so she didn’t know what else to say.
Xu Fei was very enthusiastic. She took Zhou Ziying along and accompanied Jiang Chenxin all the way to her new place. The older woman sharing the apartment had already rushed to the airport on a business trip, so after putting down the luggage, the two girls took the opportunity to look around. They were fairly pleased with what they saw.
“What a clean place! Living here really is more comfortable than the dorm. And it has both a front gate and a security door, so it feels very safe. We won’t have to worry about thieves or some bad person breaking in at night.”
A thought struck Jiang Chenxin, and she took the opportunity to persuade them.
“Why don’t you move into this complex too? Then we could visit each other all the time and go to school together. Wouldn’t that be great?”
Zhou Ziying shook her head.
“Forget it. One month’s rent here costs more than a whole year’s dorm fees. My family isn’t exactly well-off, and I’m already used to living in the dorm.”
“Exactly. With the water and electricity, this place has to cost more than 2,000 yuan a month. That’s about all I get for living expenses. I’m nowhere near as flush as you.”
As she finished speaking, Xu Fei took out her vibrating phone.
“Xiaomeng says she’s already ordered the food at the seafood restaurant. She’s telling us to hurry over!”
“Then let’s go! We’re eating a huge feast tonight!”
The three girls left the apartment and headed to the seafood restaurant to meet Yang Xiaomeng. None of them noticed that, at some point, a few strands of black hair had fallen onto the clean living-room floor. Like nimble insects, they slithered into every dark, hidden corner.
The dinner was cheerful enough. After all, the girls hadn’t seen one another all winter break, and with the new semester about to begin, they were all looking forward to their new campus life. Jiang Chenxin, however, was only forcing herself to smile. Ominous black hair was wrapped around each of her three roommates’ necks. It wasn’t inert, either. It crawled back and forth against their necks like venomous snakes, as though flicking its tongue and waiting for the chance to take their lives.
Xu Fei suddenly scratched at her neck, looking puzzled.
“Strange. Why does it feel so itchy here?”
“Maybe it’s mites or something. Just take a shower when we get back.”
Yang Xiaomeng dismissed it casually.
After dinner, Jiang Chenxin and her three roommates left the restaurant. This time, Jiang deliberately walked at the back and tentatively reached toward Zhou Ziying’s neck. The black hair seemed to have eyes in the back of its head. Its tips suddenly sprang up and shot toward her.
Jiang jerked away, lost her balance, and fell painfully onto the ground.
Zhou Ziying hurried over to help her up.
“Xiaoxin, what’s wrong with you today? You can even trip just walking?”
“Maybe I’ve been a little tired lately…”
At the next intersection, Jiang Chenxin said goodbye to her roommates and returned to her new place, her mind in turmoil.
It was getting late. She would set up the room first.
Having so much luggage did have its advantages: she already had all her clothes, shoes, sheets, blankets, and everyday necessities. She only needed to put everything in its place. After she finished arranging things, the once-empty bedroom finally felt lived-in. Wiping the fine sweat from her forehead, Jiang Chenxin took her pajamas and toiletries into the bathroom.
The bathroom was spotless, and the skincare products had been arranged neatly. It seemed the older working woman she shared the apartment with was a very tidy person, which reassured Jiang Chenxin considerably. She wasn’t a neat freak, but any girl would care about these things. A clean, orderly room was simply more comfortable to live in.
Jiang Chenxin removed all her clothes, untied her two hair bands, and stepped into the shower. The water heater worked wonderfully; hot water began pouring from the showerhead within seconds. Her opinion of the apartment rose even higher.
Jiang’s habit was to wash her hair first. She closed her eyes, worked the shampoo carefully and evenly through every strand, and then rinsed it out.
This should have been second nature, but something felt different today. Why did her hair seem so much thicker than it had when she’d washed it yesterday? Once she had rinsed away the shampoo, she opened her eyes—and let out a terrified scream.
Hair. There was hair all over the floor beneath her feet, greasy and brittle, matted into lock after lock. It was crawling around her feet like living worms, making a strange, grating sound.
It was normal to lose some hair while washing it, but who lost it in clumps like this? And the texture clearly wasn’t her own hair!
Jiang Chenxin sprang out of the shower, hurriedly dried herself, and pulled on her pajamas. Clutching her chest, she drew deep, ragged breaths. The shower stall was still full of hair, but as the water carried it toward the drain, it all vanished in no time.
If she remembered correctly, this greasy, dry hair was exactly like the hair wrapped around her three roommates’ necks. Could it mean that she was…
She rushed to the mirror and examined herself carefully. Thankfully, there was no hair around her neck. But… why was there a faint red ring there? It looked as if a rope had just been tightened around her neck.
Jiang Chenxin stumbled back to her bedroom in a daze. Nine o’clock was normally her time to catch up on her shows, but she had no interest in watching anything now.
It had all started with that strange dream on the plane at noon. Since then, she’d encountered one bizarre event after another and seen terrifying things no one else could see. Most frightening of all was the woman in red who had hanged herself in the dormitory. The aura of death around her was so overwhelming that even one distant glance made Jiang feel as if she’d fallen into an icy abyss. And then there were those black strands of hair that had been dogging her all the way…
It seemed that all four girls in her dorm had been caught up in the clutches of some evil thing!
In truth, Jiang Chenxin was a fairly gutsy girl. She had never been particularly ladylike as a child and loved running wild and getting into mischief with the boys. Cockroaches, rats, insects—whatever other girls were afraid of, she didn’t care about in the slightest. Once, out of curiosity about the taste, she’d even eaten a grasshopper alive. She was the very definition of a tomboy.
She had also loved ghost stories when she was little, often buying slim compilations from newsstands. They frightened her, but the more frightened she was, the more she wanted to read. She had watched nearly every famous horror movie too, usually alone late at night, curled up under the covers.
If an ordinary girl had gone through what she had today, she probably would have been screaming like a madwoman by now. Jiang Chenxin was terrified too, but at least she could still appear normal in front of other people.
Even now, she wasn’t most worried about herself. She was worried about Yingying and the others still living in that dorm. Her earlier warning had done no good; the three of them were determined to stay there. Was she supposed to tie them up and drag them away?
All she could do was pray silently that nothing would happen to them.
